Toronto Star praised for investigative scoop about city's mayor

Monday 4 November 2013 05.43 EST
First published on Monday 4 November 2013 05.43 EST

"Bravo, Toronto Star. We're very much in your debt." That handsome tribute comes from John Gordon Miller, on his journalism doctor blog, because of the paper's dogged investigative journalism in exposing the bizarre behaviour of Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford.

The revelation followed a two-month investigation by the paper's investigative editor Kevin Donovan and reporter Robyn Doolittle.

They reported that a video appearing to show Ford smoking crack cocaine was "being shopped around Toronto by a group of Somali men involved in the drug trade."

Over the following months, Ford suggested that the Star was waging a political vendetta against him. There were official denials that no such tape existed.

But the Star pursued the story, sometimes in company with the New York-based site, Gawker. Along the way the Star reported that Ford had twice been drunk in public. There were also allegations of criminal activity, including extortion and bribery.

Canadian police have since confirmed that they have obtained a copy of the video, which they recovered from a computer during their investigation into an associate of the mayor, and his occasional driver, who is suspected of drug-dealing.

Miller is full of praise for the Star's work as "a courageous watchdog in the public's interest." He writes: "Seldom in recent memory has a newspaper 'owned' a story as thoroughly as the Star owns the Rob Ford exposé."

He points out that the paper achieved its investigative scoop despite staff cutbacks:

"What sets the Star apart is that it chose to keep its superb investigative unit, headed by Kevin Donovan, largely intact."

Miller concludes: "It's a mark of the Star's influence that all four of the city's major newspapers - even the Toronto Sun, which has served as the Pravda of Ford Nation - are now calling for him to step aside."